Siddharth Parameswaran

Abstract:

We study Bose-Hubbard models on tight-binding, non-Bravais lattices, with a filling of one boson per unit cell--and thus fractional site filling. We discuss situations where no classical bosonic insulator, which is a product state of particles on independent sites, is admitted. Nevertheless, we show that it is possible to construct a quantum Mott insulator of bosons if a trivial band insulator of fermions is possible at the same filling. The ground state wave function is simply a permanent of exponentially localized Wannier orbitals. Such a Wannier permanent wave function is featureless in that it respects all lattice symmetries and is the unique ground state of a parent Hamiltonian that we construct. Motivated by the recent experimental demonstration of a kagome optical lattice of bosons, we study this lattice at 1/3 site filling. Previous approaches to this problem have invariably produced either broken-symmetry states or topological order. Surprisingly, we demonstrate that a featureless insulator is a possible alternative and is the exact ground state of a local Hamiltonian. We briefly comment on the experimental relevance of our results to ultracold atoms as well as to 1/3 magnetization plateaus for kagome spin models in an applied field.

Abstract:

We study the structure of Bogoliubov quasiparticles, bogolons, the fermionic excitations of paired superfluids that arise from fermion (BCS) pairing, including neutral superfluids, superconductors, and paired quantum Hall states. The naive construction of a stationary quasiparticle in which the deformation of the pair field is neglected leads to a contradiction: it carries a net electrical current even though it does not move. However, treating the pair field self-consistently resolves this problem: in a neutral superfluid, a dipolar current pattern is associated with the quasiparticle for which the total current vanishes. When Maxwell electrodynamics is included, as appropriate to a superconductor, this pattern is confined over a penetration depth. For paired quantum Hall states of composite fermions, the Maxwell term is replaced by a Chern-Simons term, which leads to a dipolar charge distribution and consequently to a dipolar current pattern.

Abstract:

We study the magnetic excitations of itinerant helimagnets by applying time-resolved optical spectroscopy to Fe(0.8)Co(0.2)Si. Optically excited oscillations of the magnetization in the helical state are found to disperse to lower frequency as the applied magnetic field is increased; the fingerprint of collective modes unique to helimagnets, known as helimagnons. The use of time-resolved spectroscopy allows us to address the fundamental magnetic relaxation processes by directly measuring the Gilbert damping, revealing the versatility of spin dynamics in chiral magnets.